


Testing the Waters

by thatsmistertoyou



Series: Right Where We Are [3]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Day At The Beach, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Family Feels, Homophobic Language, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Long-Term Relationship(s), M/M, Making Out, Vacation, not by phils family or anything they just talk about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 01:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4120765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsmistertoyou/pseuds/thatsmistertoyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan joins the Lester clan on their semi-annual vacation to Florida. The phandom takes notice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Testing the Waters

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'ed by the lovely philslesters with help from the amazing hearteyeshowell.  
> This is probably the most meta thing I’ve ever written. Also one of the fluffiest. Enjoy <3

It’s a miracle no one recognizes them at the Manchester airport. At least, no one approaches them to say hi or to get a selfie with Phil in his glasses, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Dan tries not to be paranoid; he’s already accepted the fact that his travelling with the whole Lester clan won’t go unnoticed one way or another. He’s prepared to deal with the consequences.

Of course, it’s at the Florida airport that they get recognized, when he’s got all kinds of unattractive travel wear going on in the face department. The subscriber who stops them is lovely - she’s polite and unassuming and even laughs at Dan’s lame joke about looking like a hedgehog that’s been in a metal tube for nine hours. To be fair, it’s accurate, but that doesn’t mean it’s funny.

She apologizes for bothering them, but Dan offers her a second hug and insists it’s fine. And it is, really - he loves bumping into subscribers and potentially making their day better by saying hi or taking a selfie. It’s one of the best parts of his job, and it’s not her fault that Dan’s on edge about the whole affair because it’s the most Telling thing they’ve ever intentionally done.

Phil brushes his hand against Dan’s as they walk, and Mum and Dad dutifully break ranks to walk in front of them.

“You okay?”

“Yeah,” Dan says. “Just can’t wait to get to the house.”

Phil nods, and they have the ‘I understand and I feel your pain’ conversation with their eyes. Phil withdraws his hand, and Dan marvels at the irony of it. This is a situation in which he’d most like physical reassurance _because_ he can’t have it and that is the source of his want for it. Sometimes he wonders just how easy it would be say ‘fuck it’, but it doesn’t only affect him, so he keeps his free hand by his side. It’s not until they’re in the backseat of the cab that he slips his fingers between Phil’s and squeezes.

x

Phil waits until they’re well and truly alone, sitting at the shoreline behind the beach house, to bring it up the next day, which Dan appreciates. He didn’t want to bring down the mood of the Lester family bonding time, especially since they’re all so happy he’s there. Dan is too, he really is, but he can’t help but get frustrated.

“It’s not like I _want_ to be all over you all the time in public,” he explains, picking up a handful of sand and letting it run through his fingers. “It’s just that we don’t even have the option.”

Phil nods, staring out at the ocean and squinting.

“Yeah. And it’s not only that people might know who we are, it’s the general homophobia. I swore to myself I’d never let anyone call me a ‘fag’ again.”

Dan flinches and bites his lower lip. “Kids can be cruel. The world can be cruel.”

“Yeah. And it’s awful because you’re always worth it to me. I’d gladly have every slur thrown at me if it means we’d be happier and I’d get to express my feelings for you freely.”

Dan senses the ‘but’ coming, so he fills in the blank himself. “But it’s not that simple.”

“Exactly,” Phil sighs, dropping his head onto Dan’s shoulder. Dan winds his arm around Phil’s waist and pulls him closer so that Phil’s tucked up under his chin.

“Don’t worry,” Phil says. “This stretch of beach is only accessible to people who rent out these houses, and Mum swears almost no one’s here.”

“I was gonna be all romantic and say I didn’t care, but I suppose that’s a good thing,” Dan says, kissing the top of Phil’s head. “You think everyone’s figured out I’m here?”

“Probably,” Phil says quietly. It makes sense to Dan, as he’s learnt never to underestimate the power or speed with which information travels among their viewers. "What do you want to do about it?"

They had discussed it at length when Dan decided to come on this trip, and they figured saving the worry and choice until now was the best option, so they could do whatever they felt comfortable with at the time. Dan didn't expect to react this way.

"Own it," he says, picking up his phone from the towel they’re sitting on, turning on the camera, and smiling into the lens.

"We're both shirtless," Phil points out, but he straightens up for the photo anyway.

"I'm only giving them a bit of shoulder," Dan says, messing with his hopelessly curling hair. The Floridan humidity gives the best flat irons a run for their money.

"Right, but we're shirtless. Together. On the beach. And your hair is all curly."

"Yes, Phil," Dan agrees slowly, placing his phone into his lap and adjusting his hair. He's well aware of what Phils implying, but he's tired of caring. "And any assumptions about what that means would be entirely correct."

"You're keen to just let it happen?"

"I've enjoyed doing that lately. Letting people think what they want is so much easier than trying to throw them off. You said you wanted to be honest about this. So let's go, let's be honest, only without the direct truth. The obvious truth is that I’m on holiday with your family and we’re shirtless on the beach together. People can do whatever they want with that."

"You're sure?" Phil asks, evidently surprised to see Dan taking on this philosophy after so long.

"Yeah," Dan says. "It's worked for you. The only reason people are suspicious is because of me. I'm the one who always has to butt in and get defensive."

“It’s a tough situation,” Phil says gently. “We have different ways of dealing with it.”

Dan sighs in lieu of an apology, because he knows Phil gets it. They’ve had this conversation dozens of times. But this time, Dan wants it to actually _do_ something. He lifts the phone back up.

“What should the caption be?” Dan asks, and both of them fiddle with their hair for a few moments before Dan finally gives up.

“Maybe just emojis? Like the sun and the sunglasses emoji and a palm tree or something?”

“You be the sun and I’ll be the sunglasses one,” Dan says, smirking, and Phil pouts.

“Which sun one?”

“The creepy one.”

“Of course,” Phil says, laughing.

The sun comes out from behind a cloud, and Phil squints again. Dan had told him to bring sunglasses outside, but by the time Phil had deemed that a good idea, he was covered in sand. That was probably Dan’s fault for accidentally shoving him too hard when he had made some terrible sea-related pun.

“Why don’t you go inside and get sunglasses?” Dan suggests again, and Phil shakes his head. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

Phil scrunches up his face and Dan goes for his old favourite of a small smirk. With half of his face taken up by sunglasses, he figures it works. Dan just holds the shutter button for ten seconds to give them plenty to choose from, and they thumb through the photos for a few minutes.

“How do you think everyone’s going to react?” Phil says, watching Dan sift through filters and then give up so he can throw in an ironic #nofilter.

“Probably freak out. In the good way, I guess. Our bare skin is touching, how scandalous.”

“They’re going to have fun with it, we might as well too,” Phil says, snatching Dan’s sunglasses off of his face and putting them on.

“Rude,” Dan says, squinting at his phone screen. “ _Jesus_ , it’s bright out here.”

Phil dutifully places the side of his hand against Dan’s forehead to provide him with some shade, and Dan just rolls his eyes.

“Thanks for helping me after you stole my sunglasses.”

“I think these are actually mine.”

“Like it matters. You’re going to make _me_ go inside to get another pair aren’t you?”

“How much do you love me?”

“Not enough to do that.”

“C’mon, it would be cute. I could take a picture in these, with a caption about how I made you go get your own, and then we could take another one together. The Sunglasses Saga.”

Dan considers that for a moment, staring at the ‘share’ button on his drafted instagram post. Fuck it.

“Okay. Let’s do it,” he decides, pressing ‘share’ and hoisting himself up. “You have until I get back to take a decent selfie. Not sure you can manage.”

Phil sticks his tongue out and grabs Dan’s phone, and Dan laughs as he turns around and treks across the sand to the house.

He does his best to rid himself of sand at the showerhead next to the pool, and then realises there are no towels to dry himself off with. He sighs, but thankfully, Mum walks past the sliding glass door and sees his struggle.

"Alright, Dan?" she asks, stepping outside.

"Could you get me a towel?" he sighs, and she laughs.

"Coming inside?"

"Just to get Phil's sunglasses. He stole mine."

"I thought I raised him better than that," she says, shaking her head and feigning disappointment. "I'll go get them for you."

"Thanks."

Dan hums while he waits, quickly thinking back to how their room looked earlier that afternoon and hoping it’s presentable. Not that they would leave anything questionable or incriminating around, but he hopes Mum doesn't have to hop over any dirty boxers or video game wires.

She returns with the sunglasses, two towels, and a tube of suncream, and tells him that they're going to order pizza later.

"I can't be bothered to cook after that massive lunch Cornelia made," she says, and Dan nods.

"Tough act to follow. Pretty sure I won't be hungry til midnight."

"Hence the late night pizza," she says matter-of-factly.

"Sounds good," Dan replies, putting on the sunglasses and grabbing the rest from her arms. "Thanks."

"No problem, love." Mum gives him a smile and goes back inside.

Dan leaves the towels by the shower for them to use later and ambles back to the beach, plopping next to Phil with an exaggerated sigh.

"That was so much movement and your mum agrees you're rude for making me do that."

"I got you walking away in the background of the picture though. Worth it for the dramatic effect."

They take the third photo, and Dan manages to look unamused even with half of his face shaded, which Phil's quite impressed with. After posting, they scroll through the comments and replies, and Phil grins.

"I feel the excitement under the capslock key smashing."

"I think we broke them," Dan says, glancing at Phil's phone. "Anyone jumping to conclusions?"

"Always," Phil shrugs. "Based on what I'm seeing, it's more like leaping for joy."

"I can live with that."

"Isn't that what we're here for? To make them happy?" Phil says, glancing at Dan, his expression soft.

"Yeah," Dan affirms, grinning. "And I guess I thought that making our viewers happy meant like, _exposing_ ourselves but - I dunno. Maybe not."

"Well I'm sure a lot of them appreciate the exposure," Phil teases, rubbing Dan's back lightly and scooting a bit closer.

"Can you keep it in your pants for like, two seconds? We're having a serious discussion about our relationship with our subscribers."

Phil sticks his tongue out at Dan, who rolls his eyes.

"Anyway, I'm all for just being more open and seeing how it goes. We've kind of been doing that recently but, like, I dunno. I guess if it makes us more honest and them, for the most part, happy, then it's a win-win."

Phil nods in agreement. "You know I've always said that it's our business and it's not relevant to what we do, but with everything we've been doing lately, I'm not so sure that's true."

"What d'you mean?"

Phil sits up a little straighter and faces Dan. "Well with the book and the tour and everything being 'Dan and Phil' in relation to us, I don't think we can say our relationship is irrelevant anymore. It's the reason we decided to write a book together and brand ourselves as a unit. We talked about it for ages and said that it'd be fine no matter what because we're sure that we'll be together for a long time. Being secure in our relationship has led to so much of our success that I don't think we can say it doesn't affect our career."  

"I thought we decided all of that with respect to our _friendship._ Because we decided years ago that no matter what, we're best friends, and that's what we decided to document in the book. That we created this world together and wanted to preserve it so that if YouTube shuts down tomorrow, we and everyone who supports us would have it and remember it."

"Yeah," Phil says, his voice breaking a little. "You're going to make me cry, stop that."

"Isn't that true, though? And that's why I've never thought it was dishonest to not be out. Because our friendship is more important to me than our relationship. I'm already sharing the most important thing in my life with the Internet, I figured we could have one thing that's just for us."

"I love you a lot," Phil says, grabbing Dan's hand and intertwining their fingers.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Just wanted to throw that out there."

"Oh, okay then," Dan snorts. "No counter arguments then?"

"No, you make a great point but - I dunno. Why is this so complicated? Either we want to come out or we don't. Either we want to be more open or we don't."

"But it's not like that."

"Exactly."

Dan sighs. "Okay, how about this? I will concede that our relationship is relevant to our careers and thus it could benefit or hurt us no matter who knows. But I am on board for making an effort to being more open in the interest of honesty, lowering my blood pressure, and making some of our viewers really happy because they like to see us together. And we will see how that goes. Deal?"

"Deal," Phil agrees, slipping his hand out of Dan's and locking just their pinkies together.

"I love you too, by the way," Dan says. Phil pushes both of their sunglasses up and out of the way so he can kiss him.

"I know."

x

They burn away the rest of the afternoon at the shoreline, soaking in the dwindling heat and letting the waves lap up onto their toes - and nearly onto their phones after the evening low tide. They had moved closer to the water when it had started to recede, and now that it’s rising again, they’re too close. Dan and Phil snatch their phones out of harm’s way, but can’t move fast enough to avoid the water sneaking up underneath them and drenching the towel they’re sitting on.

After several moments of hasty scooting, Phil pouts and complains that his bum is now wet. Dan simply smirks in response, setting their discarded sunglasses aside.

“Stop it!” Phil exclaims, but he’s laughing. He gives Dan a playful shove, which Dan anticipates; he throws an arm around Phil’s shoulder and falls back exaggeratedly when Phil pushes him, allowing Phil to topple onto him as his back hits the sand.

Phil grins at him. “We have to stop meeting like this,” he says, brushing a bit of Dan’s hair from his face. “People will talk.”

“Can’t imagine having millions of people speculating about us,” Dan retorts, slipping his arms round Phil’s waist. “You said no one’s around to see us right?”

“Would it deter you from snogging me if I said no?”

“Probably,” Dan frowns. “Do you think that little of my self control?”

“Well, you’ve got that _look_ right now.”

Dan laughs, and knows what Phil’s talking about, given the amount of times it’s been screenshotted. But acknowledging that would ruin the flirty banter.

“What look?”

“The look that says,” Phil clears his throat and puts on his best impression of Dan’s accent, “‘I’m going to kiss you now, Phil.’ Or at least, ‘I really want to kiss you now but I can’t for any one of a lot of different reasons’.”

“This look is very talkative, then,” Dan says, placing a hand on Phil’s shoulder so he knows to sit up, and straightens up so they’re in a bit less of a compromising position, should anyone see them. “What if we stop all the talking?” he suggests, winding one hand round the back of Phil’s neck and rubbing his knuckles against the short hair there.

“Good idea,” Phil replies, taking Dan’s face in his hands and kissing him. Dan smiles against his mouth, bursting into full laughter when Phil does the same. Phil laughs too, resting his forehead against Dan’s and closing his eyes.

“I’ll never figure out what’s so funny, but it is,” Dan murmurs.

“It’s funny how we can’t even kiss properly cos we keep smiling at each other like dorks?”

“Speak for yourself. I’m laughing cos I kinda like you.” Dan places his free hand on the small of Phil’s back, pulling him closer.

“‘S embarrassing,” Phil says, adjusting his body accordingly but wasting no time sealing their mouths together again. Dan feels the sand displace beside his bum when Phil plants a hand there for stability, leaning into Dan so that their shoulders brush.

Dan has to force himself not to worry about his surroundings, if he’s honest. Kissing is a full-body experience, and even with the nice, grounding sensations of Phil’s hands and his lips and the warm sand under them and the water that’s started to creep up onto his toes again - his mind wanders a bit. Someone could be photographing them for all he knows. But he pushes that fear back and allows himself to turn a blind eye to the audience he always imagines is present. Instead, he lets the beach be one of the spaces where it’s just him and Phil - where they’re all that matters - however temporarily.

He pulls away to tilt his head to the other side, eyes still closed, when a bit of sea breeze picks up and blows Phil’s fringe into his face. Dan sputters and pulls back, rubbing his eye, and Phil giggles.

“Sorry,” he says, and Dan just shakes his head and combs Phil’s hair through his fingers as he pushes it back.

“Maybe you _should_ get a quiff,” Dan muses, his voice quiet. “For safety reasons.”

“I’ll consider it,” Phil replies, scrunching his face up when Dan kisses his forehead. “That’s a pretty convincing argument for it.”

Dan grins at him and glances out at the ocean. The sun has started to properly set, sitting low on the horizon and painting the sky orange and pink.

“I like sunsets better than sunrises,” Dan says, adjusting his position so they’re sitting side by side again, one arm slung around Phil’s waist. Phil places a hand on Dan’s knee.

“I dunno. I liked watching the sunrise in Manchester.”

“That was a terrible idea,” Dan snorts. “We stayed up all night and then it was too cloudy to really appreciate it.” He recalls dragging Phil’s duvet outside onto their balcony - then just Phil’s, but only by technicality - and throwing it over the both of them. He remembers being dissatisfied that their chairs did not allow for cuddling while they waited for the sun to peek out from behind the skyline. It was a cute idea in theory, but not so much in practice.

“The first time it was. Didn’t we do that more than once, though?”

Dan opens his mouth to deny it, but then he remembers Phil coaxing him into trying it a second time. Dan couldn’t sleep that night and kept waking Phil up by tossing and turning.

“Yeah. Went better the second time,” he concedes.

“Not a single cloud.”

“Try new things?” Dan offers in conclusion, and Phil smiles.

“Try new things.”

x

Martyn certainly followed through on his promise to pit Dan and Phil against each other in Lester Family Game Night, as Dan can practically feel his blood boiling while Phil mulls over the fan of Apples to Apples cards in his hand for way too long. Martyn just laughs.

“Dunno what you’re on about, he’s not going to pick yours,” Dan mutters with absolutely no confidence. Phil hasn’t picked his red card once the entire game, which is really cramping his style. And his score.

He glances around the table and surveys his competition. Mum and Martyn are in the lead with four green cards each, Cornelia and Dad have two, and him and Phil are stuck at one each.

“Choose carefully, Phil,” Cornelia says, folding her arms on the table and leaning forward, clearly confident in her choice.

“Or you could just go with your gut instinct,” Dan offers none too gently. As well as he knows Phil’s thought processes, Dan’s answers seem to appeal to him the best when Phil goes for his gut reaction on concept-matching games like this.

“Okay,” declares Phil, putting the green card reading ‘explosive’ back on the table. He places the red cards down in reverse winning order. “Kangaroos…”

Cornelia lets out a disappointed sigh.

“Kangaroos are explosive?” Dad questions, and she shrugs.

“I hear they’re quite powerful when they jump. That could be explosive.”

“Clearly Phil didn’t think so,” Martyn teases, and she rolls her eyes.

“Mad cow disease,” Phil continues, laughing. “Power tools…”

“Power tools can be explosive,” Martyn insists, and Dan shakes his head.

“Only in the worst case scenarios,” he says matter-of-factly, and Martyn sticks his tongue out at him. Dan mimics him in retaliation, and then adjusts the cards Phil had put down so they line up properly.

Phil holds up the two remaining cards contemplatively. Dan sees Mum, who’s sitting on Phil’s other side, shift to glance at the cards. Dan mirrors her.

Martyn pulls out his phone and takes a picture, which Dan only notices when he hears the shutter sound.

“Do we look that intense?” Mum asks, and Martyn nods.

“The competition is fierce,” he says, presumably typing that as the caption. “Can I post this?” he asks, glancing up at Dan and Phil.

Dan can feel Phil’s eyes on him, willing him to make the decision, and Dan shrugs, mostly to convince himself of his own nonchalance.

“Don’t see why not.”

Martyn nods and resumes posting the photo, the room silent for a few moments as he does so.

“Well, get on with it then,” Cornelia nudges, breaking the silence. “If Mum wins this, she wins the game.”

Dan puts his game face back on, sending every telepathic message of persuasion he can muster at Phil. The Lester clan had decided unanimously - minus Dan and Phil - to forbid any kind of hint at whose card is whose when it gets down to the last two. There may have been an incident in which Phil won because he let his card’s identity slip and then pouted at Dan. Dan maintains that his card _was_ the true winner before any of that happened, but the others remained unconvinced.

“What are the choices, Phil?” Dad asks, and Phil lays the cards out on the table.

“Angry hornets and noisy neighbours.”

Everyone laughs in apparent appreciation of the answers, and Dan plasters a smile on to hide the fact that Mum’s is probably better than his.

“Those are both good,” Martyn says, and Cornelia nods in agreement.

“Yeah,” Dan says. “Tough decision.”

Phil glances at each card in turn several times, before he reaches out and holds one of them up.

“Angry hornets wins,” he decides, and Dan groans dramatically. Mum lets out a celebratory “yes!” and snatches the green card from in front of Phil, adding it to her pile to make the winning five.

“Come _on,_ ” Dan whines, all dignity discarded. “Noisy neighbours! We know this _firsthand._ ”

“I wouldn’t say they’re explosive,” Phil says, laughing.

Dan flops forward onto the table and buries his face in his arms in shame. He hates losing, especially when it causes someone else to be right.

He feels Phil pat his back condescendingly, and makes a vague noise of disapproval. He hears the shutter button click again, and doesn’t even look up.

“Why must you capture my shame?”

“He has to capture the shame,” Phil says, ruffling Dan’s hair. Dan bats his hand away.

“Why don’t you ever pick my cards?” Dan laments, his voice muffled by his arms. Phil has to ask him to repeat himself before Dan actually sits up.

“Your answers are too obvious,” Cornelia offers in answer, and Dan raises his eyebrows. “You know each other _too_ well. You pick the one that Phil would throw down if he were playing that round. He picks the answers that aren’t what he would automatically think of, I think, so that’s why you lose.”

Dan looks at Phil. She’s probably right - they can get into each other’s headspace so easily that that’s probably how it turns out every time. They have this conversation with their eyes, and turn to face her simultaneously.

“I think you’re right,” Phil says.

x

When the pizza tracker indicates that their late-night meal is on its way, Dan offers to grab plates from the kitchen in preparation.

“I think they’re all dirty; we haven’t run the dishwasher,” Mum tells him.

“That’s okay, I’ll wash them.” Dan says, standing up and stretching his arms out. “Need to get up and move around anyway. It’ll justify the amount of pizza I’m about to eat.”

“Good call,” says Martyn. “I’ll help you out.”

“Thanks,” Dan says, leading the way to the kitchen and standing by the sink. “I wash, you dry?”

Martyn nods, grabbing the towel from the oven handle and watching idly as Dan turns on the faucet and starts on the full sink of dishes.

“What is it about old, wet food that’s so disgusting?” Dan muses, rinsing some off of a plate. “Like, we were literally just eating this a few hours ago, but now that it’s in the sink, it’s gross beyond belief.”

Martyn laughs. “I’ve got no explanation for that. Part of the human psyche, I guess.”

“Guess so,” Dan agrees.

He washes in silence for a minute before Martyn speaks up, as Dan got the vibe that he would when he offered to help with the dishes.

“Listen, I’m sorry if I go a bit overboard with the teasing sometimes. I don’t mean anything by it.”

Dan really wasn’t expecting Martyn to bring that up. He wonders for a moment if Phil said something to him, but he wouldn’t have, since Dan wasn’t really bothered by it. He shrugs. “Don’t worry about it, really. I don’t take it personally. I’m the same way with my brother.”

“Glad you know I consider you a brother,” he says, nudging Dan’s arm with his elbow.

“Yeah,” Dan replies, unable to hold back a grin. “I’d be concerned if you were still really nice to me after all this time. Cos _then_ I’d know you didn’t like me.”

“Well, Phil kind of likes you, so I have to.”

Dan drops the cup he was washing into the sink dramatically and faces Martyn, his mouth ajar.

“Does he really? Oh my god. How do you know?”

“He told me so.”

“Yeah, but what did he _say_ , exactly?”

“He said, and I quote,” Martyn clears his throat and puts on a much more Southern version of his own accent. “‘Martyn of course I _like_ like my boyfriend why are you five years old go away.’ Unquote.”

Dan gasps, and they both dissolve into laughter, Martyn on covering his mouth with the dishtowel. It’s quiet except for the running water for a minute before he speaks again.

“Nice to see you two more comfortable on the internet,” he says. That was much closer to where Dan was expecting this conversation to go.

“Yeah. Phil’s always been more relaxed about it than I am, but I’m starting to see his side. Guess we just decided to stop actively trying to hide it. It’s exhausting and it feels dishonest sometimes.”

“Yeah,” Martyn agrees. “Not to mention I got several thousand new followers on Twitter and Instagram out of posting those photos.”

“You’re welcome,” Dan says sarcastically. “I haven’t checked the comments or replies or anything. How are they?”

“About what you’d expect: on the whole, very cute.”

“That’s good. Our audience is really great; I honestly can’t complain much.”

“I wouldn’t blame you for the occasional complaint.”

Dan shrugs. “That’s what me and Phil have each other for. We’re really lucky, and they’re pretty much right, so I feel like complaining to other people isn’t the best idea.”

“What d’you mean that they’re right?”

“Well, we _are_ together. We do most things together. And I very often look at Phil like he’s the best thing to ever happen.”

“You do.”

“Glad we’re in agreement,” Dan laughs and finishes off the last dish, handing it off to Martyn and leaning against the counter. “I guess I’m just immune to everyone reading into those things cos it’s not hurting anyone? We’re happy. They should be too.”

“Excellent philosophy,” he commends. “I think you’re making the right move. If you want my opinion, that is.”

“Nope, no opinions allowed. Don’t you know me at all?”

“Opinion retracted,” he says, bowing his head to focus on the last dish he’s drying. “You know, we should invest in paper plates. It feels weird to eat pizza off of proper dishware.”

“Was that an opinion?” Dan asks, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

“Definitely not.”

x

No matter how sluggish eating a lot of pizza made him, Dan still grabs his laptop on his way to bed. Phil joins him a few minutes later, glasses askew on his face. Dan fixes them automatically, only to have Phil flop onto his shoulder and displace them again.

“Why do you even bother?” Dan murmurs, plucking Phil’s glasses off of his face so they don’t dig into his nose.

“Can’t see,” Phil complains, but Dan can tell his eyes aren’t even open, as he’s sleepily nuzzling into the crook of Dan’s neck. Dan shakes his head in disapproval and continues scrolling down his tumblr dashboard.

When he first decided he wanted to be a YouTuber, he didn’t know that not getting tired of his own face would be part of it. Luckily, it’s usually pictured beside Phil’s, and accompanied by a lot of creative and artistic talent. So Dan doesn’t mind seeing it everywhere, and has even decided to somewhat actively seek it out.

He hears Phil stir a little after a few minutes, and nudges him so he’ll sit up.

“Been gauging the reactions to our holiday,” Dan says. Phil blinks and squints at the corner of the window.

“Can’t tell if you’re using your Hannah Montana blog or not.”

“It’s not a Hannah Montana blog.”

“I know. But you’re undercover. Living a double life.” Phil clears his throat and Dan reminds him that singing might wake his parents, so he resists.

“True,” Dan agrees, scrolling past a particularly pretty edit of their sunglasses selfie with a sunset behind it. “They have the right idea,” Dan comments. “We should have taken more photos at sunset.”

“There’s always tomorrow,” Phil says, sounding much more awake. “Look at this one,” he says, pointing to several drawings of Dan in polaroids. “They also have the right idea. I should use that camera more often.”

“You should. You brought it, yeah?”

Phil lifts his chin and peaks at his open suitcase in the corner of the room. “Uh, I think so? Don’t want to get up and look.”

“Do you remember packing it?”

“I’d forget to bring you if you didn’t call the cab.”

“Fantastic.”

Dan rolls his eyes when Phil sits back and rests his head on Dan’s shoulder again.

“What have the people been saying about our holiday?” Phil asks.

“They’re… excited,” Dan says, dragging out his reply until he can find a post to prove his point. He pauses on a reblog of Martyn’s photos, and selects tag viewer.

_#i’m going to sleep on a bed of cacti #they’re so cute wtf_

_#LESTER FAMILY GAME NIGHT_

_#goodbye im gonna swallow a fridge #dan and phil_

_#why is dan such a fuckign mEME #A MEME IN LOVE #A MEME ON HOLIDAY #A MEME WHOS A SORE LOSER #ok this sounds like movie trailer narration #ph_

_#phils probably the hardest person to appeal to in apples to apples #hed pick the most random cards to win #phan_

_#MOTHER LESTER #heart eyes howell_

_#this is disgUSTIGN what the fCUK?? ? #i ha te this #why is dan so fUCKING i N LOVE #even when phil didn’t pick his card smh #how rude_

“I was just playing the game fairly and picking the best card,” Phil says, and Dan stops scrolling to scowl at him.

“Yeah, cos you’re awful.”

“You love me.”

“I don’t.”

“Not according to these tags,” Phil says smugly. “Even while burning the fires of competition, you still manage to look very much in love with me.”

“I always wanted to be an actor, you twat. I’m acting so I can get free holidays to Florida and feed off of your popularity before I inevitably quit YouTube and abandon everything I’ve ever wanted.”

“‘S that so?”

“You should see some of the shit some people come up with,” he says, pointing to the screen and whistling.

“Do they really?”

“A select few. If anything it’s quite entertaining.”

“Huh.”

Dan closes tagviewer on that post and moves on to a compilation photoset of The Sunglasses Saga that he’s seen at least a dozen times, and does the same.

“This is gonna be fun,” he says.

#dan is a nasty fucking rat on vacation with his stupid boyfriend i Cannot Believe This™

“Wow, rude,” Phil says, and Dan just snorts.

“I feel the affection underneath it.”

They manage to scroll back far enough to the point at which most people realised Dan was in Florida too, and encountered a lot of incredible reactions.

_#HSGHFIGHF #LOOK AT DAN’S HAIR #ALSO WHY ARE THEY SHIRTLESS #IM SCRE AMIGN ????? #WJAT IS AHPPENING WHY ARE THEYON A BE ACH #WAIT #FUCK #ISNT PHIL ON HOLIDAY W HIS FAM_

_#HOLD THE FUCKING PHONE. #DAN IS WITH THEM. #THIS IS NOT A DRILL YALL_

_#the hobbit hair has returned from war #we are so blessed #anyway i have a bone to pick with them #why are they such a married couple #this is offensive #dan and phil_

_#dan is on holiday with the WHOLE lester clan #as in TWO other couples #and theyre taking shirtless selfies on a beACH ?? #is this real life #am i being punked #will i get to meet ashton #[sharpay voice] SHUT UP RYAN #anyway im fucking dead goodnight #phan_

_#the hell do these memes think theyre up to_

_#okay im not saying this is phan proof but this is QUITE CONVINCING_

“I think they’re catching on,” Phil says when he can properly breathe again.

“Yup. They’re picking up on the hints.”

“Have you seen anything negative?”

“This isn’t exactly the most representative sample to get negativity from. Underneath all the capslock and hyperbole are some of our biggest supporters.”

“I know,” Phil says, smiling. “But also our harshest critics tend to come from tumblr.”

“Yeah,” Dan agrees. “Felt like a cop-out when I unfollowed some of them. Like, I understand their opinions but I’m one of two people who has the authority to know that they’re just _wrong_. When it comes to our relationship, I mean. Talking about content and frequency of uploads and the book and everything - that I can handle criticism about. But some people are just _so_ negative. That’s the internet for you, I guess.”

“Yeah.”

“So to answer your question, no, I haven’t seen much negativity because I kind of avoid it. I’ve seen plenty of healthy skepticism though. Overall I think it’s going alright.”

“That’s good,” Phil replies. “Want to check Twitter and see what they have to say? We seem to get more short, gut reactions that way.”

“Happens when you have 5 seconds to think and 140 characters to express yourself.”

“True. I’ve made some poor tweet choices in the past.”

“‘In the past’ meaning three days ago when you tweeted about nearly forgetting to pack boxers?”

“Hey, it got people thinking didn’t it? All the replies about how I wouldn’t need them or could borrow them from you got the phan gears turning, didn’t they?”

“Only _after_ people figured out I was here. And you tweeted that _before_ we discussed it. And no one really needs your help to ‘get the phan gears turning’.”

“Shut up,” Phil says, tickling Dan’s stomach in retaliation. Dan sputters and flinches, nearly sending his laptop toppling over the side of the bed.

“Watch it! I’ve got a fucking MacBook on my lap!”

“Shush! Family’s sleeping.”

“Okay, that’s enough of this for today,” Dan says, shutting his laptop down and putting it on the floor. “We’ll check Twitter tomorrow.”

Phil rolls over to turn off the light and shifts back to the middle of the bed. Dan curls around him, legs interlocked and one arm slung over his waist. Phil scoots the pillow over so that they can share it before taking Dan’s hand and pressing it to his chest under his own.

“‘S too hot in here for this,” Phil murmurs, kicking the sheets so that they lay as far down the bed as possible. Between the Florida weather and shared body heat, cuddling is quite impractical. Dan and Phil compromised by stripping down to their boxers and letting the covers sit around their feet.

“Doesn’t seem to be stopping us,” Dan whispers, letting his eyes shut. “Think we’re making the right call still? With the hint-dropping?”

“Yeah,” Phil says, slipping his fingers between Dan’s. “Maybe if we do it enough, we won’t have to make a big deal of it. Everyone will just know eventually.”

“That’d be the dream, wouldn’t it?”

“Mhm.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! if you liked it, why not pop on over and say hi on [tumblr](sassmasterlester.co.vu), and give this fic a [reblog](http://sassmasterlester.co.vu/post/121327156340/testing-the-waters-the-right-where-we-are)? i appreciate all of your support of this series <3


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